Bizarre News-Bike Sharing

The stories may be strange, but they're true

BIKE SHARING
ONE-HORSE TOWN
JOKER ARRESTED
WORST WRITING
EMPIRE STATE BUILDING LIGHTS
CRASS TEACHER

BIKE SHARING

WASHINGTON (AP) - Washington could be on the road to being the bike capital of the country. SmartBike DC got rolling yesterday. District officials believe the bike sharing program is the first of its kind in the nation. Users check-out bright red three-speed bikes from self-service racks around the city. Bike renters pay a $40 membership fee that allows for bike use of up to three-hours at a time. Similar programs are big in Europe. City officials hope the bike share program will help reduce traffic and be a transportation alternative.

ONE-HORSE TOWN

HICKMAN, Neb. (AP) - A one-horse town wants to get rid of its one horse. The City Council in Hickman, Nebraska, is standing by an order that Harley Scott must move his horse, named Peter Rabbit. The horse is in a pasture in the fast-growing suburb of the state capital of Lincoln. This week, the council voted to enforce a livestock ban. Owner Scott says he has no intention of moving his horse. The 76-year-old Scott says his family has had horses on the property since his father bought it in 1935. He adds his 32-year-old horse is too old to move. If Scott doesn't comply by the September 15th deadline, he risks a possible $100 a day fine.

JOKER ARRESTED

CENTREVILLE, Mich. (AP) - Justice for the Joker. A guy who dressed as the Joker has pleaded guilty to trying to steal a large Batman poster from a movie theater lobby. Police in Three Rivers, Michigan, say 20-year-old Spencer Taylor was wearing a purple suit, green wig and face paint when he was busted last month. The Joker caper will cost Taylor a day in jail. Yesterday, a judge also sentenced him to perform 16 hours of community service and pay $685 in fines. As part of the plea deal, more serious charges against the Joker wanna-be were dropped.

WORST WRITING

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - "Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber..." So begins the winner of this year's bad writing contest sponsored by California's San Jose State University. The entry comes from Garrison Spik, a Washington communications director and writer. The complete passage reads: "Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped 'Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J."' The contest is named after Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" famously begins "It was a dark and stormy night." The writers are asked to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. The winner gets $250.

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING LIGHTS

NEW YORK (AP) - It's a-half world away from Beijing -- but a New York landmark now has an Olympic glow. The Empire State Building is showing the Olympic colors. The tops of each of the four sides of building are being lit in the colors of the biggest 66 competing countries. It's a first for iconic skyscraper. Last night, the Empire State Building was lit in the colors of Cuba, Sloveneia, Ukraine, and Spain. The first and last nights of the games, the landmark glows in the colors of the U.S. and Olympic host, China.

CRASS TEACHER

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh-area middle school teacher was "stupid, idiotic and moronic." Those are the words of a judge, who ruled the teacher wasn't criminal for making sexually suggestive comments to two girls. The judge tossed out harassment convictions against 51-year-old Mark Fallon. Fallon was charged with using a slang term to tell one girl he might be aroused by her tight skirt. He told another girl her boyfriend should bite off a loose string hanging from her pants. The Steel Valley Middle School teacher was convicted in March after the girls' parents filed criminal complaints. Fallon won his case on appeal and has gotten his job back.

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